Lifestyle

A NORTH Clare pub has become the first in the country to win a prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand. The award for Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvarna is a breakthrough for pub dining in Ireland. The Bib Gourmand is awarded for good food at moderate prices and only seven were awarded this year in Ireland, the other six going to restaurants. The pub will now feature in the 2010 Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland. Wild Honey Inn is owned by chef Aidan McGrath and his family. The Mayo man, who has worked in Clare for the past 15 years, opened the doors just eight months ago.“It is good to be recognised for doing what we do here and it is good to get it at this time especially, in the present climate and at the start of our second year,” Aidan told The Clare Champion. The pub specialises in seasonal, local and organic produce, served in a casual environment.  “The award …

Weddings are big business and a South Galway resident is hoping to make them her big business in the coming months.Louise Olsthoorn, who lives and works in Tubber, started her own business in April last year and is looking forward to what she hopes will be a very busy 2010.Although in recent years Louise worked in retail sales, her early working career has proved very useful in her path to establishing Grace Covers, which provides room decor for receptions.“As a teenager I spent many years working in hotels, mainly the Armada Hotel in Spanish Point, now a famous wedding venue and also on the front desk in theWest County, one of the busiest hotels in Clare. It was always my intention to eventually return to the hotel industry but in a different capacity than before,” she told The Clare Champion.Grace Covers supplies products for hire to decorate reception rooms for events such as weddings or society balls. Her stock includes …

The Festival au Desert is a magnet for Mali’s finest musicians. Ennis journalist Tom Rowe travelled to the West African country to see for himself

Ten years after crackling onto the south-west Clare airwaves, Kilkee-based Raidió Corca Baiscinn will mark the community radio station’s contribution this Friday evening.

LEADING Clare students have received awards for achievement and contribution during their years in second-level education.

Ireland’s largest traditional music summer school is held each July in Miltown Malbay in memory of the great musician Willie Clancy.

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As many said goodbye to 2009 and rang in the new decade with hopes of better things to come, for two homeless men, 2010 was already looking bright.Over the Christmas period ,Piotr Baran and Josef Pavelka have learned how good-natured the people of Clare really are.Piotr, who is from Poland, and Josef, who is from the Czech Republic, are friends for the last two years and communicate through Russian. However, they share a bond through their experiences, as both have spent those two years living homeless. As the freezing sub-zero temperatures set in before Christmas, local organisations and residents pulled together to see to it that Piotr and Josef were not left to the elements in such conditions. Both were housed for a period in a vacant holiday home in Miltown Malbay for two weeks over Christmas and they have now been accommodated, in the short term, at Ennis’ homeless hostel Laurel Lodge. Having secured a roof over their head …